What is RPM on YouTube?
Last updated 3 October 2026
RPM, or revenue per mille, is what a channel actually keeps for every 1,000 views after YouTube takes its share. It covers all revenue — ads, memberships, Super Chat, Premium watch time — divided by total views, including views that carried no ad at all. That last part is why RPM is always lower than CPM.
RPM against CPM
CPM is what an advertiser pays for 1,000 ad impressions before YouTube's cut. RPM is what lands in the creator's account for 1,000 views of any kind. A channel can show a $12 CPM and a $3 RPM in the same month, and nothing is wrong: most views did not carry a mid-roll, and YouTube keeps 45% of what the advertiser paid on those that did.
If you only track one, track RPM. It is the number that pays for equipment.
What moves it
Viewer country is the single biggest factor, for the same reason ad costs differ by country: advertisers bid more for some audiences than others. Video length matters next, because videos over eight minutes can carry mid-rolls. Topic matters after that — finance and software attract higher bids than entertainment.
Shorts sit in a separate pool with their own, much lower payout, so a channel that shifts to Shorts usually watches its RPM fall even as views climb.
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